Monday, November 21, 2016

Someone about 18 months ago decided that because Donald Trump wasn't brown, black, female or gay, he must be a white supremacist, and that's all it took for the alt-right (used to be a valid term for people who disagreed with conservatives--the alternative right) accusers and hate mongers to run with it. Was that ever said about him before June 2015? He used to be a flamboyant celebrity who hung with all kinds of people--mainly rich celebrities. But Washington is a private club whether the Bushes or Clintons are in power.

Upon throwing his hat in the ring he became a target of both Republicans and Democrats. For almost 30 years he'd been saying this was a great country that wasn't being run well (I saw one clip from the Oprah show in 1988 where she asked him if he would ever run for president). But in 2015, "make America great again" became a dog whistle according to the alt-left. Trump didn't say ALL immigrants from Muslim countries should be excluded, only that the process needed to be put on hold until the government could figure out how to vet them. Now there are memes on the internet showing arms with prison tattoos, poor Joseph and Mary facing a wall and Japanese American children looking through barbed wire. He never said all Mexicans were drug dealers and rapists, and the CRS has reported almost exactly his assessment of the border problems. (Heroin Trafficking in the United States, Congressional Research Service, Aug. 23, 2016.)

If the Broadway cast of Hamilton are so worried now, did they fear for their lives and careers in 2008-2012 when Obama lied about his support for traditional marriage, or when people who can't afford a night out on the town in New York were slandered as deplorables? Did they interrupt their audience's pleasure after they'd paid $800 a ticket with calls for closing the gender pay gap at the Clinton Foundation? Would they have asked their audience to stop aborting disabled babies? Who but the 1% can afford a ticket to pay their salaries and build their careers? The Hamilton cast has very odd values and even worse manners. For the pleasure of lecturing one group of theater goers out for a pleasant event, they spoiled the evening for everyone else.